You may not know it but there is a serious fly fishing culture here in Hayward, Wisconsin. We have numerous fly anglers along with a fly shop, The Hayward Fly Fishing Co and guide service. The owner of the operation, Stu Neville, has become a good friend since the minute Granny and I arrived in Hayward. While we’ve only fished together once prior to today, we get out for beers and dinner on occasion and I’ve done live art at the shop for several events. It’s been really fun to stay involved in a fly fishing community.
Today, despite it being peak season for Hayward fishing, Stu dropped the hammer and hung the gone fishing sign. Let me tell you, we were not allowed to raise this sign when I ran the fly shop in Jackson Hole. The owners out there never wanted to miss a dime. I have a huge respect for Stu in that he makes fishing with his employees a few times a year a priority. And best of all, they invited me to join them!
It was a beautiful day. We left town casually around 7:30 AM drift boats in tow. Soon we were at the put in. Me, Levi and Erik Thue watched the boats while Stu, Erik Huber and Mark Ross did the shuttle. We pushed off around 9:30.
Its full on smallmouth bass season. You could still bump into a muskellunge but musky are very sensitive to the heat and warmwater. We don’t want to purposely stress them. The heavy rains we experienced all of June and into early July have stopped and our temperatures both air and water have risen. So no musky flies were thrown, only a variety of poppers and big high-floating streamers. It was a matter of minutes before the smallies began to cooperate.
I cant get into full details here because its late now and I meet a college buddy at 4:30 AM tomorrow (only a few hours away), but our fishing was outstanding. While our largest smallmouth was by no means a lunker, probably about 14”, we caught a ton. Most were 10-12 inches and nearly all came by twitching topwater flies. It was truly an incredible action packed day of fishing.
If you’ve never experienced floating a river and catching smallies on the fly, you can contact the shop and book one of these guides. And if you don’t want a guide, at least you have a shop to lean on for needed flies and tackle and a heap of excellent advice. But remember one thing, don’t try to do this on “Guides Day Off Fishing Day”!
Now thats a shop with passion!